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More FWF Cleanup
I got back to the hangar and continued working on the few remaining FWF tasks I have left. I added additional Adel Clamps to support the alternator blast tube. Here is another view of the aft of the alternator showing the blast tube aimed at the cooling fan intake. The oil line is also supported…
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Engine Wiring Cleanup and Cowl
I finally got some time to get back to the hangar (having a newborn switches some priorities around). I spent a few hours working on FWF items including painting the interior of the cowl with some white paint. I first coated the interior with some thinned epoxy with some white dye to fill all the…
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Forward Fuselage Hatch Gaskets
I had a big life event a few weeks ago – my son was born! I have not had much time to work on the plane obviously, but I did manage to get away today for an hour to work on some things. A few weeks ago (before my son was born) I spent some…
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Forward Fuselage Top Skin
Over the weekend I riveted the final skin (and the final rivet) of the plane. Before I got to riveting, I knocked out some items from the backlog. I needed to remove the oil filler neck in order to get to one of the bolts for the baffle. This otherwise impossible to reach screw has…
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Riveted Plenum Nutplates
I finally had some time to get back to working on the plane. I wrapped up the plenum installation by drilling K1000-8 nutplates to the baffles and counter sinking for some countersunk washers. Now that the plenum is fully drilled, I can paint it and prep it for final installation. Here is the plenum with…
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Finished Plenum Flanges
The flange fabrication has been going really well. The front flange turned out great after trimming, and I decided to continue with the fiberglass flange method for the rear of the plenum. Here is the front flange after trimming and drilling. I’ll need to figure out the best method for screw installation once the prop…
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Added Plenum Flanges
I’ve been going back and forth on how to best attach the plenum to the engine baffles. I’ve seen it done several different ways. One involves riveting aluminum angle to the baffles and then adding nutplates to the angles and attaching the plenum from the top. Another way is to build up a fiberglass flange…
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Installed Alternate Intake Air
With the snorkel installed, I spent some time on the alternate intake air bypass. The bypass valve mounts to the side of the snorkel, with a pull cable installed on the panel. I picked the least-bad spot on the panel for the pull cable. Hopefully I’ll never need to use it, as that indicates the…
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Finished Plenum Fabrication
I went back to the airport to finish up the plenum. Its fully cured and super strong. The core adds a significant amount of stiffness while keeping the whole thing very light. I removed the top plastic and the whole plenum just popped right off. I then trimmed the excess material around the perimeter. it…
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Continued Plenum
Today I had my friend Norio help me out on the actual fiberglass layup of the Plenum. He’s a seasoned composites expert and has helped me on many other parts (canopy, wings) of the plane as well. I started the day by finishing off trimming the foam around the inlets, and covering the rest of…
RV-7 N890GF 